The City of Cape Town will publish a tender on February 13, 2026 for an electricity trading company to provide additional power to the metropolis, outside of the grid.
Africa’s leading tourist hub, with a population of 5Million residents, has been seeking to break free from the monopoly of power generation and distribution held by Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, South Africa’s state owned utility.
Cape Town wants to be both electricity generator as well as purchaser. The city currently relies on Eskom for over 1,000 MW of its base load requirements; now it is building 60 megawatts of generation capacity itself, while it looks to buy in 300 megawatts of power, outside of what it receives from Eskom.
In the last 15 years, Cape Town suffered, along with the rest of the country, severe outages in power supply, as Eskom struggled to meet demand from its old and poorly maintained coal fired plants.
The country has emerged from the worst in the last 15 months, and the system is undergoing a reform led transition to a mix of state and private supply of wholesale electricity. Cape Town is taking advantage of the fact that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has awarded approximately 16 trading licences to private entities as of December 31, 2025.
The city previously negotiated with several suppliers of electricity, but with South African laws amended to allow operations of trading platforms, Cape Town is changing tack. It now plans to outsource the task of securing power to a private company that can buy it from a range of providers.
LNG2026 presents unique opportunities for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and securing high-value deals that advance the LNG business. With a comprehensive focus on the entire LNG value chain, from production and transportation to market delivery, attendees will participate in insightful discussions about the latest industry developments, emerging technologies, and market trends.
Continuing the esteemed LNG Conference Series, which has been a cornerstone of the international LNG sector for over 56 years, LNG2026 invites you to be part of a transformative gathering where the future of the LNG market is defined, key partnerships are established, and abundant opportunities arise.
ES/NCDMB/IPP/ARADEL-ADV-100385/290825/PROVISION OF DRILLING FLUIDS AND MUD ENGINEERING SERVICES
1. INTRODUCTION
Aradel Energy Limited, operator of the Ogbele, Omerelu, Olo and Olo West Fields invites interested companies to make a submission of an expression of interest in the provision of Drilling Fluids & Mud Engineering.
2. SCOPE OF WORK
The scope of work is to provide Drilling Fluids & Mud Engineering Services on a call-off basis for two years commencing Q4 2025.
Key scope activities will include but not be limited to:
i. Provide all mud chemicals; water/synthetic based/oil-based mud systems and relevant additives.
ii. Provide liquid mud plant and sufficient stocks of mud chemicals in country.
iii. Provide mud design formulation and engineering
iv. All necessary consumables and spare parts and all other related equipment, tools and experienced personnel necessary to satisfactorily perform the above service
v. Mud Engineering services shall be in accordance with the modern mud system and capable of participating in design, development, and implementation of same.
3. MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS
To be eligible for this tender exercise, interested contractors are required to be registered on the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) service databases and provide evidence of such registration together with the underlisted information/documents for consideration:
Detailed list of experience in the delivery of similar scope in the Niger Delta in the last 5 years, giving names of clients and location;
Detailed list, with evidence of ownership, of equipment owned by the contractor that is relevant to the provision of the services, indicating age;
Organogram with CVs of relevant personnel;
Current tax clearance certificate;
Audited accounts for the last three years (2024, 2023 and 2022) and management accounts for the current year;
Technical Partnership/alliances/ Joint Venture proposal including evidence of relationships with Original Equipment Manufacturers, as applicable;
Compliance with the minimum Nigerian content requirements as set out in the paragraph below.
4. NIGERIAN CONTENT REQUIREMENTS
Interested Contractors are invited to express complete understanding of and willingness and commitment to comply with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010 and Insurance Act 2003.
Consequently, bidders’ submissions shall be evaluated strictly with the minimum evaluation criteria defined in the NOGICD Act.
Interested Contractors shall:
Provide evidence of company Ownership Structure forms CO2 and CO7, registration on NOGIC JQS and NUPRC certificate.
Provide evidence of 1% NCDF payments (including subcontracts) for all past projects executed by the Bidders (and Rig owner) in the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry.
Provide evidence of the underlisted Category 1,2,3,4 or 5 NCECs demonstrating ownership of blending facility/drilling fluids equipment to be utilized in the execution of the work scope.
Manufacturing and related services (MS) group
Services and Support (SS) group
Detailed description of the location of in-country committed facilities & infrastructure (Technical/Administrative offices) in Nigeria to support this contract.
In line with the NCD Human Capacity Development Initiative, Bidder shall commit to providing Project-Specific training, man-hour, budget, skill development and understudy plan for Nigerian personnel utilizing OGTAN registered trainer(s) or other approved NCDMB training institution(s).
Submit Tenderer’s corporate organizational and project/contract specific organogram. CVs of all personnel.
For any position to be occupied by expatriate, tenderer shall provide undertaking to obtaining expatriate quota approval granted by NCDMB before any expatriate is deployed to execute this work scope.
NOTE: Non-compliance with Nigerian content requirements & failure to meet the mandatory requirements stated above are FATAL FLAWS which invalidates submission.
CLOSING DATE
The Expression of Interest document in electronic copy (PDF format) should be sent by e-mail to bidadverts@aradel.com with “Confidential Expression of Interest for the Provision of Drilling Fluids & Mud Engineering” – in the subject line not later than 19th September 2025 being the closing date.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This is not an invitation to tender. Full tendering procedures will be provided to applicants who are successful at this expression of interest, in accordance with the pre-qualification procedures.
This advertisement of “Invitation for Expression of Interest” shall not be construed as a commitment on the part of Aradel Energy Limited, nor shall it entitle Applicants to make any claims whatsoever and/or seek any indemnity from Aradel Energy Limited and/or any of its Affiliates or Partners by virtue of such Applicants having responded to this Advert.
This expression of interest is a simple invitation to interest in the indicated work scope and does not warrant any further feedback from Aradel Energy Limited hereafter. If you do not hear from Aradel Energy Limited. within 3 months of submission, it should be taken that your application was not successful….Click here to download full details
The Energy Axis is convening a web conference to explore the tools, trends, and ideas shaping the next chapter in energy.
A four-person panel will examine ‘digitization in oil and gas: AI, Blockchain & Beyond’ on Thursday June 12, 2025.
“What if the next big opportunity in oil & gas isn’t underground, but digital?”, asks Funke Taylor, founder of The Energy Axis, who is going to moderate the conference. The conversation, she explains, will focus on “The Future of Energy: AI, Blockchain & the Digital Revolution.” Panelists include Moses Ling, Akin Idowu, Aksel Grunnvag and Adesina Odukoya.
Ling is founder of Xodus AI, an AI-driven project encompassing a prediction platform, a mobile wallet, and a quantum-powered AI assistant. Xodus AI leverages artificial intelligence, social media analytics, and crowd wisdom to make predictions about real-world events.
Idowu is founder, StellaSolve Energy, which describes itself as “solving energy challenges with sustainable innovation”. Idowu, a former lead earth scientist with Chevron Corporation, has around 30 years of upstream oil industry experience.
Grunnvag is founder and CEO of Pro AI, an Oslo, Norway based AI Business Plan Generator & Creator Software.
The fourth panelist, Adesina Odukoya, simply described as a digital tech leader, is head of Information Systems and Technology at ipNX, a Nigerian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) company offering serrvices like broadband internet, fiber-optic networks, and various IT solutions to businesses and residents across the country.
Ms. Taylor says that the session will provide piercing insight “into where the energy industry is headed and how to be involved no matter your role; engineering, finance, HR, or operations”
Six themed macro-areas, a single ecosystem for ecological transition. Ecomondo, Italian Exhibition Group’s international trade show for industrial technologies and services for the circular economy, will be opening the doors of its 26th edition from 7th to 10th November at Rimini Expo Centre with a new payoff: The Ecosystem of the Ecological Transition. From exploiting waste to make further resources to the regeneration of soil and agro-forestry and food ecosystems, from energy obtained from biomass to the use of waste as secondary raw materials. And more still: the entire integrated water cycle and environmental monitoring, protection of the seas and aquatic environments in their essential function for human sustenance and economic activities. This is the exhibition layout with which IEG will be presenting the most innovative technologies for sustainable competitiveness to the market and it is also the first edition in which Ecomondo will occupy the entire Rimini Expo Centre premises since renewable energies have now found their independent position on the calendar of sector expos with K.EY, which took place back in March.
THE WATER SUPPLY CHAIN AND SAL.VE FOR ECOLOGICAL SERVICE VEHICLES
Waste as Resource, Sites & Soil Restoration, Circular & Regenerative Bio-economy, Bio-Energy & Agroecology, Water Cycle & Blue Economy, Environmental Monitoring & Control: these will be the themed exhibition areas at Ecomondo 2023. Two sectors will be highlighted from among and alongside these: the specific “Water” area and the new edition of SAL.VE. In the former, visitors will find the entire water resource supply chain: from capture to restitution and reuse with a focus on digital transformation, which is now a key element in improving its management. Top national and international utility service companies and trade associations, including Utilitalia, will be featuring in this area with a programme of seminars. In the biennial SAL.VE area, organised in partnership with ANFIA, leading manufacturers will be exhibiting vehicles for ecological waste collection and disposal services as well as urban sanitation. Test drives will be available outside.
DISTRICTS FOR “BEACON” CIRCULAR ECONOMY PROJECTS
Ecomondo will provide space at the Expo Centre for three industrial districts for which the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) has given the go-ahead with a contribution to 160 “beacon” projects for the circular economy. Rimini will therefore feature the WEEE District with a specific focus on repowering technologies and new systems for recycling waste from electrical and electronic equipment, photovoltaic panels and wind turbine blades. In the PAPER District, the focus will be on systems for the collection, logistics and recycling of paper and cardboard in cooperation with COMIECO. Lastly, a themed itinerary will be dedicated to the production of plastics with a focus on recycling systems and marine litter.
TEXTILE WASTE, ECODESIGN AND SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY
The textile industry has been identified as a key value chain for which the European Union has foreseen actions to promote its sustainability, circularity, traceability and transparency. Key factors are eco-design requirements, producer responsibility schemes and labelling systems. In Rimini, ample emphasis will be placed on the entire supply chain: from production to post-consumption. The objective of all stakeholders is to provide answers to these challenges by providing information about ongoing projects and ultimate goals as well as promoting new business models in order to outline the state of the art of textile waste management in Italian municipalities. There will be a debate and exhibition area with all stakeholders: waste producers, managers, consortia and associations, research and development institutes, textile treatment and valorisation plants, without forgetting the second hand sector.
BIO CITIES: CIRCOLAR AND HEALTHY
Ecomondo and K.EY have parted company on the trade show calendar, but the smart city, which is traditionally the falling point of renewable energies, can also be categorised under “sustainability” and “healthy”. The Circular and Healthy Cities project does just that by regenerating the city, making it greener and more efficient in the way it manages water, food, waste water and waste.
ECOMONDO AND START-UPS, MISSION: TO INNOVATE
Ecomondo as an incubator and facilitator of innovative projects: the Start-Up and Scale-Up Innovation area in the new East entrance will be back and further extended. Companies and investors will have a new and larger platform for dialogue in order to cultivate the new generation of innovative businesses. More than 50 start-ups are expected in Rimini for the 2023 edition. IEG and ITA-Italian Trade Agency are promoting the initiative with ART-ER (Territorial Appeal Research, Emilia-Romagna’s regional agency) and Confindustria as their main partners, in addition to collaboration with ANGI (National Association of Young Innovators), to promote all-round innovation.
BLUE ECONOMY: CIRCOLAR AND REGENERATIVE
From fishing and aquaculture to the regeneration of ports and coastlines and seawater desalination technologies: the blue economy will include all traditional and emerging economic sectors linked to the development of Italian and Mediterranean marine resources.
ECOMONDO, AN EVOLVING EVENT
For the 2023 edition, Ecomondo will explore frontline themes. Millennials and Generation Z are showing considerable sensitivity towards environmental protection and IEG’s event acts as a platform of ideas to give shape to today’s technological research and create tomorrow’s jobs. Exchange of knowledge, access to research tenders and European funding: Ecomondo addresses the new generations so that they can participate in the ecological transition. But there is also a new way of doing business, which the Rimini event will pay attention to and whose good practices will be shared in an area dedicated to B-Corps and their regenerative and socially responsible business model. The languages of sustainability and responsibility in corporate communication and journalism are also priorities for Ecomondo.
THE CONFERENCE PROOGRAMME AND EVENTS
Ecomondo will offer its community a full programme of conventions and conferences organised under the aegis of the Technical-Scientific Committee, directed by Professor Fabio Fava from Bologna University, in collaboration with the event’s main institutional and technical partners, together with the international board that includes experts from the European Commission, OECD, FAO, UfM, EEA, ISWA. Top topics will be dealt with in an attempt to transmit even more knowledge transmission to the Ecomondo community: the priorities of the European Green Deal, the circular economy, the regeneration of polluted areas and ecosystems, the protection of soils and seas and of the Mediterranean in particular. Case studies, public policies, public funding available for businesses, citizen engagement. The TSC and stakeholders will put together a calendar over the months to come that will create even more engagement between universities, research, industry and institutions to match, if not exceed, the +15% attendance at last year’s conferences compared to 2019.
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
The Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and ITA, together with the increasing participation of executives from the European Commission, will be joined by CONAI, Utilitalia, CIB, CIC, CONAU, Assoambiente, Cisa Ambiente, the Foundation for Sustainable Development and National Green Economy Council as institutional partners of the event, as well as the Kyoto Club, Legambiente, Federazione ANIE, FIRE, ANFIA, ISPRA, Water Europe, ISWA and WBA.
FURTHER PUSH TOWARDS INTERNATIONALITY
With a 58% increase in foreign visitation compared to 2021, the involvement of profiled operators from the Balkan area, non-EU Europe, North Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia), Senegal, Ivory Coast, Angola, Ghana, Rwanda, the Middle East, as well as Canada, Latin America, the United States and China will continue for the next edition. The second edition of the Africa Green Growth Forum will be staged thanks to the contribution of prestigious international agencies, inter-governmental institutions, such as the Union for the Mediterranean and UNIDO, non-profit organisations, including Res4Africa, Business Council for Africa, which will present the technological framework and opportunities for growth and development in the African continent.
Decom Engineering’s specialist cutting technology has been successfully deployed on a decommissioning project offshore West Africa.
Decom deployed its C1-24 chop saw in water depths of up to 1,050 metres as part of an operation to recover a jumper connector on behalf of Total Energies in the Gulf of Guinea, offshore the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The workscope included the cutting of the insulated 6” Duplex flowline at each end of the jumper, with the chop saw deployed by ROV with hot stab capability, and using a Tungsten Carbon Tip blade with an average cutting time of 1 hour 15 minutes.
The Congo project follows other successful workscopes on behalf of major oil and gas operators and contractors including workscopes in the North Sea, Mauritania, Norway, and Gulf of Thailand.
Established in the United Kingdom in 2011 and with bases in Aberdeen and Belfast, Decom is an R&D specialist focusing on the design and fabrication of cutting solutions and innovative decommissioning equipment, with a growing reputation for providing complex deep water project solutions.
Sean Conway, Decom Engineering managing director, says: “Our C1 range of chop saws are firmly established in the decommissioning sector where the nature of the work and complexity of the projects require smart solutions and fresh thinking.
“Our latest project in deep water offshore DCR is another tick in the box for the versatility, safety and efficiency of our cutting technologies, adding to an extensive track record of completed workscopes in the major hydrocarbon producing regions”.
“Decommissioning redundant piping infrastructure or repurposing assets to be converted for low or zero carbon energy storage is a massive global market, and we are committed to investing in research and development to ensure our clients have the most sustainable means at their disposal to address their needs.”
The C-1 chop saw range is certified for use in water depths of up to 2,000 metres, has multiple buoyancy options, hot stab integration, blade reverse capability and bespoke customisation capabilities.
Decom are expanding its C1 chop saw range with development of new model which will be capable of cutting piping infrastructure of up to 46” in diameter.
The Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is witnessing some kind of disquiet stemming from procurement process in the award of contract for the provision of drillship for TOTAL E&P OML 130 Drilling Campaign TENDER NO DW00001997. Mr Christopher Palmer, the Chief Executive Officer of Palmeron Nigeria, petitioned the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Limited, Mr Mele Kyari, alleging some irregularities and abuse of process in the tender.
He also accused NAPIMS, under the management of Mr Bala Wunti, of forcing TOTALEnergies to cancel the bid he ‘won’ in order to award the contract to the Tirex consortium through an illegal process. Then, following the award of the contract to a consortium of Derotech /Geoplex/ PIDWAL/NOBLE, which Tirex Petroleum and Energy is not even a part of, Mr Palmer is said to have started accusing the new consortium of underhand dealings.
A closer look at the petition shows that this issue pretty much looks like a business relationship that went sour. It emanated from TOTALEnergies’ Call for tender (CFT) and the participation of some bidders including Palmeron Nigeria. According to the petitioner, the tender process was cancelled midway in a bid to deny Palmeron Nigeria the contract of the award, which Mr. Palmer assumed his company won. Even without reading from either NAPIMS or TOTALEnergies, one could conveniently evaluate his claims using his own petition.
Mr Palmer alleged that TOTALEnergies and NAPIMS in August 2022 were considering awarding the contract to another consortium at a daily rate of $430,000 as compared to its lower rate of $322,500. It beats every imagination to suggest that business concerns will choose a more expensive option over a cheaper one unless it has to do with an issue of quality.
It could be that TOTALEnergies dropped Palmeron from further participating in the bid when it found out that he does not have a rig, a basic requirement for participation in the bid process. Is it not paradoxical that Mr Palmer who claims to have won the bid before ‘independence’ has been galivanting all over the place looking for where to get a rig. He was so desperate that, as late as October 2021, he was begging Prince Rotimi Ibidapo, the Chief Executive Officer of Derotech Offshore, to offer his rig to him for the project. He even promised to make his company the rig manager and a pay of $8,000 per day.
Anybody with a good knowledge of the workings in the oil and gas industry knows that bids attract all sorts of companies – those with experience and those without; the capable and the incapable; contenders and pretenders etc. The bid process is put in place to sift the grains from the chaff and, until the process is concluded with the award of a contract, the callers of the tender reserve the right to disqualify any responder to the bid. The lack of basic knowledge of this fact, made obvious by Palmeron’s assumption that it had won the bid, even when the process was on-going, shows its seeming ignorance of how the industry operates.
On the legal aspects, everyone who is conversant with the operations of the oil and gas industry knows that there are clauses in every CFT document that speak to the relationship between the CFT caller and the tenderer. This, Mr Palmer even acknowledged when he noted in his petition, that Article 5.2 of the instruction to TENDERER clearly states that no claim for compensation of any kind in respect of the preparation of the tender or any other cost shall be due to TENDERER in the event that COMPANY decides not to or is unable to proceed with the award of the CONTRACT.
Such clauses are put in the guidelines for participation to take care of such unforeseen circumstances that may arise in the course of the bid process and the belated decision of Palmeron Nigeria to disagree with that particular clause puts him and his company at risk of being regarded as bad losers.
There is no gainsaying that these IOCs even look beyond the horizon of the Nigerian legal system to also include the international anti-corruption laws when it comes to corporate governance issues. Moreover, the role of NAPIMS, headed by Mr Wunti – a highly respected regulator in the industry – in such instances, further questions the propriety of Mr Palmer’s tantrums.
Today, Mr Palmer, the only saint in Sodom and Gomorrah, has been blackmailing, and issuing threats to, the winners of the bid to do his bidding. Since the week of December 12, 2022, one of his phony groups, Citizen Group Nigeria, has been sending emails to one James Sanislow of the Noble Group, a member of the winning consortium, threatening him to quit the contract with TOTALEnergies or risk their attack. In their latest email, sent on 20 December, 2022, the phony group tried to apply pressure on Noble as they threatened, “this email and other emails to you will form part of our evidence that we informed you of your company’s illegality in Nigeria if you fail to take appropriate steps.” In an earlier email, the group even bragged of making money from DOJ for their nefarious acts. He has also been recruiting faceless groups and a discredited media organization in his inglorious fight.
Lastly Palmeron seems to be playing the victim card by alleging that it is being bullied as an indigenous company by an IOC and NAPIMS. Yes, same NAPIMS that is promoting the interests of indigenous oil and gas servicing companies, just to curry undue sympathy to itself. In its bid to achieve that, he started bullying other indigenous players, starting with Tirex Petroleum and Energy and moving on to the Derotech /Geoplex/ PIDWAL/NOBLE consortium when he realized that the contract has been awarded to the latter. One even wonders why Palmer is only fighting NAPIMS, a JV Operator, and not the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), without which Noble rig would not have been contracted.
The irony in the whole issue, which goes a long way to point to his character, is that this same Derotech that Mr Palmer has started accusing of underhand deal is the same company he was begging to partner with him in the contract bid but was turned down. One even wonders what sort of a businessman could be behaving the way he does – indiscriminately burning all the bridges he would need in the future.
Mr Palmer’s unfortunate expedition is trying to tarnish the image of responsible institutions in the country – NAPIMS and its Group General Manager, Mr Bala Wunti; TOTALEnergies, Tirex PE, Durotech Offshore, Noble Corporation and a host of other industry operators. He has even gone ahead to try and tarnish the image of the whole country by alleging that the Presidency is corrupt and powerless in dealing with corrupt practices.
TOTALEnergies is concerned with the accelerated decline in Egina field, which output around 145,000 Barrels of Oil Per Day BOPD, as of March 2022, a clear 25% plunge from the 200,000BOPD it achieved before the OPEC Quota cut in 2020.
The field is located in 1,500metre water depth in deepwater off Nigeria.
Some of the wells are currently underperforming but about four to five (4-5) well interventions, and two (2) in-infill wells are planned for 2022. The company also wants to examine a satellite play to Egina. The Egina West (an exploration well) is planned for 2023. If successful, the field will be developed as a tie-back to Egina main.
TOTALEnergies will also re-start the development of the Preowei field, by commencing discussions with the Contractors/Alliances on the modalities for the restart of the FEED CCFT by the second quarter of 2022.
Preowei is a deepwater hydrocarbon pool located north of the Egina field in OML 130. The development is designed as a tie in to the Egina field development, which is delivered as a subsea production system connected to a FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessel) designed to hold 2.3Million barrels of oil.
Norwegian operator Aker Energy AS has returned to rejig the development work on the Pecan field and its satellites, in Ghana’s Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points (DWT/CTP).
There certainly won’t be first oil by 2024, as has been speculated, but the development, which had rolled off to the back of the burner since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, is in full throttle
Last year (2021), the DWT/CTP block featured significantly in the Ghanaian media, largely because of the interest expressed by state firm GNPC to take a large stake in the development.
At the height of the public debate on the financial size of GNPC’s proposed stake in the asset, (in excess of $1Billion), a lot of emphasis was made of Aker Energy’s reluctance to continue investing in the asset.
Apart from the repeat of earlier statement about securing the FPSO Dhirubhai-1 for the first phase of the field development, and the pledge to “submit a revised Plan of Development for the DWT/CTP block before the summer of 2022”, Aker Energy has doubled the convertible bonds it issued to the pan Africa lender Africa Finance Corporation, from $100Million to $200Million. The terms of the bonds have been re-negotiated and extended to mature in December 2026, with an option to extend by a further three years.
Kofi Koduah (K. K) Sarpong, GNPC’s Chief Executive Officer has said that he sees first oil from the Pecan North satellite of the Pecan field, by 2024. That would be a stretch, as Aker itself would only be submitting a revised Field Development Plan by June 2022. Mr. Sarpong said: “There are two main discoveries: Pecan North and Pecan South. Dealing with Pecan North, we’ve divided the development into two phases. We focus on the first phase, get the oil out and then we come to Phase 2. So, it’s a graduated process. We intend that in 10 years if all goes well and we are developing, we may be able to add about 200,000 barrels to Ghana’s production”. It still not clear if GNPC would ultimately acquire the equity it wants from DWT/CTP block, but Aker Energy is far more upbeat about the field development today than it was a year ago.
The Selai Gas Station is a response to Nigeria’s proclamation of “The Decade of Gas”, but its promoters have discovered, in the process of the $0.4Million initial investment, that they could do well by doing good for the community.
Located in Fagba, a highly populated, development-challenged neighbourhood in the north of Lagos, Selai starts off as a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) dispensing station aiming to grow to wholesale delivery, and cylinder manufacture further down the line. But the immediate reality is that it is staring at the desperate face of poverty in the suburb and hopes it can deliver part of the development needs of the community as it looks to earn income.
Damilola Owolabi: “We have a delivery programme for our cylinders where we want to “Uberize” it. So, we are not the one handling the delivery of the cylinders to your homes. What we’ve been able to do is bring together ‘Keke Marua’ (motorcycle taxis) within the neighborhood and registered them, trained them on how to run deliveries.
“Of all the places we found, this neighbourhood seems to just fit into the business idea because there are a lot of small “Bukkas”, or as you would like to call it “mama puts” (ramshackle food canteens) within the neighborhood and a lot of them are still using firewood and coal pot”, says Damilola Owolabi, Selai Gas’ CSR minded chief executive. “I was coming from that part of creating that awareness and when we spoke to a few of them and asked why they were still using firewood and coal pots, ‘don’t you know it is dangerous to your health,’ the response I got was that an LPG cylinder is expensive how can they even afford it? But since we were looking at how to create an impact in this neighborhood, we came up with the idea of having a cylinder programme where those shops and those women that are selling by those joints can access to cylinders that affordable way”, Owolabi explains.
“What we plan to do after our launch is to be able to create a platform where we give you cylinders at an affordable rate and you spread the payment over a period of time. So yes, we are in business to make money but also, we want to create an impact in the community”.
Owolabi says her company has had to ingratiate itself with neighbourhod toughs, called ‘area boys,’ in Nigerian parlance and also had to deal extensively with the Landlord Association. “It was a lot of work and convincing sessions that we had to have with them, you know. Now we are very close because I started to see them as stakeholders”.
Apart from the cylinder programme for the canteens, and onboarding women into using gas to cook, Selai Gas wants to empower its teeming neighbourhood in several other ways. “We have a delivery programme for our cylinders where we want to “Uberize” it. So, we are not the one handling the delivery of the cylinders to your homes. What we’ve been able to do is bring together ‘Keke Marua’ (motorcycle taxis) within the neighborhood and registered them, trained them on how to run deliveries. We give you the platform and after you’ve gone through our training, we show you all the safety measures that you’re supposed to know and observe while delivering cylinders and products, then you’re registered with us. So once you have a Keke Marua, whenever there is a delivery to be done you’ll be contacted and you come pick up and a good number of them are excited. So beyond just the women and being transitioned into cleaning energy, also the men; we want to be able to engage them. We have a number of these Hausa guys that are already on this Keke Marua Scheme.”
The Fagba community has a large settlement of Nigerians from the far north of the country. In Lagos, (the country’s top commercial hub, located in the southwest), people from the North are simply called Hausas, irrespective of where exactly they come in the north(Nigeria has a high diversity of tribes per square metre). “I told the engineer supervising our construction project to engage the Hausas and the Yorubas within this community”, explains Owolabi.
“So a huge number of them were engaged and every time when I drive in, I see quite a number of them and they’re very happy warming up to us. It always reminds me of how badly we want to make an impact, why we’re settled here and the long queue of plans that we have for the community and each of them we are trying to implement”.
Selai launches on Thursday April 7, 2022 with a 30 Tonne facility, but from its projections, it expects to do two trucks and that’s about 50 tonnes “because you can’t fill a 30 Tonne truck to 100% of its capacity. It has to be 80%. So, we’re looking at 25 Tonnes of gas per truck which makes it two trucks. Within our first month, our projection is to sell two trucks within a week. In the first month of opening, we are not going to be doing home deliveries; we want to use that time to focus on our walk-in-customers and the bulk buyers. Then by the time we begin to do home deliveries, we estimate to do three trucks within a week. That is, 75 Tonnes”.
Selai Gas Station: We want to open well, we don’t want to open and we don’t want to open to the public and we’re having to deal with a lot of issues. So what we’ve been doing is training on safety and customer service just to help every staff of Selai Gas perform optimally
Owolabi, has been in oil and gas related business for close to 10 years. She is enormously excited by this phase in her career. “This is my first time of coming into the gas space; I’ve always been in the space for white product and offshore Logistics and Marine Logistics and so, coming into the gas space, we’re not playing small. We didn’t come in because we just want to be re-filing gas into cylinders, as we also want to do bigger things. We have it at the back of our mind where we’re able to get gas genset, where we are able to power some neighborhood, and even go into the Upstream side of gas. You know, where we’re selling gas for power and selling gas for other use. We’re not just going to be playing small where we will just be in the business of refilling cylinders. We also hope that by the time we own fleets of trucks, I mentioned to you earlier that we’re looking into having the cylinder production plant because there is a massive gap in that area because a lot of people can’t afford it because of the huge cost of acquiring a cylinder”.
Still, the take-off of this journey has to be right, she admits. “We’ve been doing quite a number of training actually in the last six weeks for our staff because we want to open well, we don’t want to open and we don’t want to open to the public and we’re having to deal with a lot of issues. So what we’ve been doing is training on safety and customer service just to help every staff of Selai Gas perform optimally when our gates are opened to customers. I also want to mention that we have the part for accessories, what we call Selai Accessories. We sell cylinders and cylinder accessories and you could also call for a technician to come check on your burners, or check on your cylinder back at home and technician will be sent to you. One of the midterm goals for Selai is to own our cylinders because we cannot thrive in this cylinder programme without owning our own cylinders. So, at the moment, we’re in partnership with a company here and we buy cylinders from them but eventually, our goal is to own our cylinders”.
A fuller version of this interview will be published later. The publication is sponsored by Dregwaters Nigeria Limited.
ES/NCDMB/IPP/ARADEL-ADV-100385/290825/PROVISION OF DRILLING FLUIDS AND MUD ENGINEERING SERVICES 
Grunnvag is founder and CEO of Pro AI, an Oslo, Norway based AI Business Plan Generator & Creator Software.
Waste as Resource, Sites & Soil Restoration, Circular & Regenerative Bio-economy, Bio-Energy & Agroecology, Water Cycle & Blue Economy, Environmental Monitoring & Control: these will be the themed exhibition areas at Ecomondo 2023. Two sectors will be highlighted from among and alongside these: the specific “Water” area and the new edition of SAL.VE. In the former, visitors will find the entire water resource supply chain: from capture to restitution and reuse with a focus on digital transformation, which is now a key element in improving its management. Top national and international utility service companies and trade associations, including Utilitalia, will be featuring in this area with a programme of seminars. In the biennial SAL.VE area, organised in partnership with ANFIA, leading manufacturers will be exhibiting vehicles for ecological waste collection and disposal services as well as urban sanitation. Test drives will be available outside.
Ecomondo will offer its community a full programme of conventions and conferences organised under the aegis of the Technical-Scientific Committee, directed by Professor Fabio Fava from Bologna University, in collaboration with the event’s main institutional and technical partners, together with the international board that includes experts from the European Commission, OECD, FAO, UfM, EEA, ISWA. Top topics will be dealt with in an attempt to transmit even more knowledge transmission to the Ecomondo community: the priorities of the European Green Deal, the circular economy, the regeneration of polluted areas and ecosystems, the protection of soils and seas and of the Mediterranean in particular. Case studies, public policies, public funding available for businesses, citizen engagement. The TSC and stakeholders will put together a calendar over the months to come that will create even more engagement between universities, research, industry and institutions to match, if not exceed, the +15% attendance at last year’s conferences compared to 2019.
